Rebuilding Burned Bridges missing scene
by mayachain
Summary: If you've read R-b-Br, you'll know the context this takes place in. Those first few days they spent in silence? This is a conversation they could have had.


Title: _Rebuilding Burned Bridges_ missing scene  
Pairing: Bobby/St John  
Rating: PG  
Summary: Those first few days they spent in silence? This is a conversation they could have had.  
Note: I didn't send this one to for beta-ing, but I hope it's okay anyway.

xx

**Rebuilding Burned Bridges**

If St John were to peer over Bobby's shoulder as he's working at his computer, he'd see that the programs that are keeping the college student busy at the moment consist of an open MSWord document, an excel document, an internet browser and a permanently open chat window. If he were to look more closely at the screen, he'd soon pick up a series of numbers with which Bobby seems to sign everything. If he weren't sitting on the couch reading while fiddling with the cap of his green pen, he could ask "Why 24/7?"

If he were to ask, Bobby might possibly consider giving an answer along the lines of "because I hang out with a group of mutants who've all tried, but since sworn off the vaccine."

At St John's hypothetical look of surprise and confusion, he might be inclined to go on: "You know, the vaccine? The one Dr McCoy makes by using Jimmy's blood instead of his marrow like the Alcatraz scientists did, instead of the "cure"? The one the X-Men have been giving to mutants who're afraid of their powers - yes, like Rogue, although she actually only takes a shot once or twice a year - for four years? What, Mystique didn't tell you about this? Well, we don't tell just anyone, you know."

While St John would be figuring out how to react to that, Bobby could explain: "There's about a hundred of them who come to the Mansion every three weeks. Stella did that for years."

If St John were interested, he could tell him how it was his responsibility to hand out water to help with the nausea post-vaccination, how at best the recipients had been able to direct small smiles at him when he'd hit the chill perfectly. How one day nevertheless this girl had started talking to him, had explained what power she wished to suppress, had eventually caught on to why Kitty and Piotr occasionally called him Iceman. How, when she'd realized that because of living at the school, this potentially dangerous young man with the glasses of cooled water had free access to it but never took the vaccine, it had been a revelation.

How she'd come to the Mansion a three weeks later, sat in the infirmary, eyeing the syringe in Dr McCoy's hand, and had decided to ditch it.

If they were in a situation where Bobby could pick up on St John's reluctant curiosity, Bobby could tell St John about weeks spent in the Danger Room, about the first earthquakes and how absolutely terrified Stella had been, in spite of Jimmy sitting cross-legged on the floor, alert and at the ready, just out of reach. He could inadvertently spur the fire-manipulator's jealousy by telling him about a really bad panic attack and about how he, Bobby, had gripped her hand to calm her down and how the chill of his iced-over fingers had burned into her skin, giving her focus.

If they hadn't spent the last three days in silence, he could proceed to tell St John about Traipsie, who only wasn't mad at his family for urging him to try the "cure" because their insistence he be normal had led him to meet Stella and Bobby. He could tell St John about endless financial arguments with Storm, about the budget he'd finally been given, about Shadowcat defending his decision to temporarily "leave" the X-Men to Rogue, about Kitty manipulating records so the three of them would get into the same college, about clandestine sessions every Friday night in the gym, about fear and trust and hundreds of dollars spent on repair jobs, about how Traipsie unapologetically snapped a mental finger and erased the short-term memory of anyone who saw something they shouldn't. He knows for sure he'd get St John's rapt attention by mentioning how scared he'd been when Mystique, had contacted him, Bobby, and expressed an interest in what they were doing. _Stay under the radar, but never be ashamed of what you are._ He could tell St John about Amanda, who makes plants produce more oxygen and occasionally flashes green, about Susan with her eyes sharper than the world's largest microscope, and Reynolds with his ability to pull all the light out of a room, and how they'd all decided to never again submit to vaccination, to be and stay and live as mutants 24/7.

He could tell St John all that, and maybe he will, but St John hasn't peered over his shoulder, hasn't asked, is sitting on the couch fiddling with the cap of his green pen, reading, so Bobby doesn't.

xx

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End file.
